1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector, and particularly to a card connector which rotates for facilitating insertion of an electrical card.
2. Description of Prior Art
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,068,510, 6,071,135 and 6,077,088 disclose some conventional card connectors. In these designs, the card connector is normally fixed at an edge of a printed circuit board (PCB) located in an electronic device. In assembly, an electrical card is inserted through a cutout defined in a side plate of an enclosure of the electronic device into the card connector along a direction parallel to the card connector. In other words, this design is only suitable in situations where the card connector occupies an edge of the PCB. However, in some special situations, the edge of the PCB is not available for mounting the card connector since the space on PCBs is becoming increasingly critical. Accordingly, the conventional mounting arrangement is no longer applicable in these special situations. In other words, conventional card connectors cannot be used in situations where use of the board edge is denied. Hence, an improved card connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
Copending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/627,353, which was filed on Jul. 28, 2000 and is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, discloses a rotatable card connector having two fixing clips fixed to a PCB. The fixing clips are pivotably engaged with two pivots integrally formed on opposite ends of an insulative housing of the card connector for allowing rotation of the card connector relative to the PCB. However, although this design has proven to be practical, a rotatable card connector having its fixing clips easily assembled to an insulative housing thereof is still desired. For facilitating understanding of the description of the present invention, the disclosure of the U.S. application Ser. No. 09/627,353 is incorporated herewith by reference.